Genital Herpes in Children Under Eleven Years of Age Presenting to Secondary Care

• This project commenced in April 2007
• Genital herpes in prepubertal children is rare, and when it occurs, raises the question of possible sexual transmission.
• Paediatricians currently have very little evidence on which to base an opinion on possible mode of transmission, yet their advice is key to whether or not a child protection investigation proceeds.
• This study will measure the incidence of genital herpes in young children in the UK and Ireland, and describe clinical, social, developmental and demographic features which might be associated with different possible modes of transmission (sexual and non- sexual).
• It will not be able to confirm the mode of transmission because there is no way of definitively ascertaining whether sexual abuse has occurred or not.
• A national surveillance study is necessary to provide such data because of the rarity of the condition, the need to collect true population based data to eliminate referral bias, and because most cases will be referred to a paediatrician at some stage in the initial presentation because of the child protection implications.
• Funded: Birmingham Children’s Hospital Research Fund
• Ethics: This study has been approved by the London MREC (Ref: 07/MRE02/9) and has been granted PIAG Section 60 Support (Ref: 4-06(FT6)/2006)
• Lead Investigator Dr Richard Reading, Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital

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